


Backbeat

by fabricdragon



Series: Fake Relationship Shuffle [4]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: AO3 FB Challenge, Deaf Clint Barton, Drummer Clint Barton, Fake/Pretend Relationship, M/M, Mutual Pining, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Sharing a Bed
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-04
Updated: 2018-10-18
Packaged: 2019-06-04 22:34:35
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15157082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fabricdragon/pseuds/fabricdragon
Summary: Director Fury INSISTS that Tony Stark  have a full time bodyguard, posing as his escort, for an event.  Fury wants him to take Natasha, but Tony never did respond to orders well...





	1. Chapter 1

Fury glared at him. “Stark, you are NOT going to that event without a full time bodyguard!”

“Yeah, that’s great Captain Sky Pirate, but after you had Natasha literally stab me in the back, I don’t trust her to guard it.”

“I’m the least likely to be suspected–” Natasha began reasonably.

“Yeah, no.”

Fury desperately wanted a drink… or a baseball bat… “We are going to have perimeter guards for you, but you need someone unobtrusive, someone who can watch your back and have an excuse to be with you when you would otherwise be at your most vulnerable.”

“Which is exactly why she’s off the table.” Tony sat in his chair, swinging slowly side to side.  He should take Bruce, except Bruce would hate it.

“Do you have a better idea?” Steve asked.

Maybe it was a desire to rub Captain America’s nose in it, maybe it was–as he would claim– his sheer brilliance leaping ahead–but Tony just nodded solemnly and said, “Yeah, Barton.”

Clint had been mostly ignoring the proceedings, figuring either Natasha would get the job or Stark would stalk off in a rage and build a robot date or something, when his name was mentioned. “What?” he reached up to subtly turn his hearing aid up.

That was the wrong thing to do as everyone started yelling, but since his name kept being mentioned he  tried to put up with it.

Eventually Steve was standing there looking all kinds of embarrassed, “You… but Director Fury wanted you to have someone who would pretend to be your… you know… date…”

“Lover, boy toy, escort, stud muffin–no wait that’s me–”

Steve sagged into his chair, “You… You can’t be serious?”

Fury growled, “What makes you think this is a good idea, Stark?”

“Oh, it’s a horrible idea, but I didn’t want a bodyguard pretending to be my escort in the first place–you did.” Tony bared his teeth in a smile.

“Wait… ME?!” Clint finally got it through his head what they were saying. “You want… me… to… wouldn’t Natasha be–” he waved his hands vaguely.

“A much better choice!” Fury snarled.

“Oh? She gonna follow me into the men’s room too?” Tony arched an eyebrow. “You want to shove a bodyguard on me in the guise of my escort, lover, whatever?  Then its Barton or shove off.”

Fury very slowly looked over at Barton and sighed. “Take Romanov and get outfitted.”

“Yeah… about that: No.” Tony shook his head.

“He’s my new boyfriend? Then he’s coming with me and I’m going to spoil him by buying him pretty clothes and some cool jewelry–and I’ll build my own tech into it thank you very much.”

Natasha sighed, “It will help with the background if he is seen buying Clint clothing… but we will need to establish a cover identity for him first.”

“I’ve seen him playing with an arrow like it was a drumstick–do you play, Barton?” Tony looked over his sunglasses at the man.

“Yeah? I mean a little… for fun…”

“Met him at a small venue, playing drums… he had a fight with the band–make something up that makes him sound good, maybe they were jerks to one of the girls– and I caught him on the first bounce.”

Tony stood up. “Get the IDs done, tell me where he’s arriving from, and I’ll send my driver to pick him up and bring him to the tower.”  He grinned at Clint, “I’m going to spoil you rotten babe, but if you flirt with any of the competition it is SO over.”

And Tony walked out.

“I’m what…?” Clint stared at Natasha like he must have misheard it.

“You’re Tony Stark’s new boyfriend.” She said flatly, “Come on, we have to get your cover identity worked up.”

Steve shook his head, “Doesn’t he even care about his reputation?!”

Fury shrugged, “As long as his date is single and of age, I doubt it will cause a problem, but he is right: Barton is good at his job, and not well recognized, AND he can stay with Stark wherever he goes.”  He looked at Barton, “I’m very sorry: remember you aren’t allowed to kill him. Dismissed.”

 


	2. Chapter 2

Clint turned his hearing aid back off and signed at Natasha to “Explain this?!”

So Natasha went through everything he had missed–because he hadn’t expected to be involved– while they created a cover story, complete with a few publicity photos and some mediocre band reviews. Clint memorized his cover, and read up on the venues, as they got him a basic wardrobe and re did one of the cheap safe house apartments into where he’d been staying.

“Luckily I already know some obscure band trivia…” Clint muttered.

Natasha leaned in close, “Seriously,” she let him lip read, “can you manage?  Stark is difficult.”

Clint sighed and signed back, “He’s defensive and he doesn’t trust us–which I get.”  He considered, “Actually… it’s kind of nice that he trusts me: a lot of our folks still don’t.”

Natasha smiled at him–her genuine one where one corner of her mouth sort of moved up a fraction– “If he takes advantage of you…”

That got Clint to laugh, “I don’t think I’m his TYPE.”

She punched him in the shoulder lightly and he got taken down to a music store to be picked up by his new sugar daddy.

~

Tony walked in, “Pepper! I have a new relationship again.”

She didn’t look up, “Real, fake, or in between?”

“Fake… but it better look real–Fury wants me to take a bodyguard to–”

“Natalie?” Pepper looked up with a frown.

“He tried shoving her on me, I said no.”

“Good, so who is it?”

“Clint!”

“Who?”

“Barton?  The archer? Hawkeye?”

Pepper frowned, “Have… have I even seen him?”

“He’s the one that got mind controlled, and wasn’t at the press conferences, so no.” Tony thought about it, “He had the arrow pointed at bag-o-cats nose?”

“Well… if I don’t remember seeing him I don’t expect anyone else will,” she said thoughtfully. “So boyfriend? What backstory are they coming up with?”

“I came up with!” Tony said proudly.

Pepper promptly winced.

“What?! You act like it’s a bad thing: it’s a great cover! He’s a second rate drummer who got kicked out of his band when he complained about the band’s bad behavior.”

Pepper just stared at him, “and how are you going to explain him getting YOUR interest?”

“Oh, right… you haven’t seen him.”

“Good looking?”

“Fabulous biceps, great shoulders, fantastic ass–almost as good as mine– combined with a cute nose and a perpetually lost expression.”  Tony suddenly realized that he knew all of that, and that Clint WAS really good looking… “Oh hell…”

Pepper just smirked at him.

He slunk out and let her handle the paperwork.

~

Clint got picked up in a limo, naturally, and whisked off to the tower… they didn’t pull up anyplace he’d seen the one time he’d been here before, but into a private parking area.  When he got out there was a red head on very high heels–those are dangerous. 

Red heads in high heels are always dangerous.

She was looking amused at him…

“Oh he wasn’t lying… you’re adorable.”

“Yes ma’am, uh... what?” he reached up to adjust his hearing aid being fairly certain he’d mis-heard.

She frowned. “No outside electronics.”

“It’s my hearing aid ma’am.”

She tilted her head, “Seriously?”

He winced, “Yes ma’am.”

“Huh… well Tony will want to build you a new one.  Can you understand me if I turn away?”

He blinked in surprise at the understanding, “A bit, it depends on how much other noise there is around.”

“Well tap me on the shoulder or tell me if you miss anything. Jarvis?”

“Yes, Miss Potts?”  _Oh right, his AI_ … That was in the briefing.

“Tony’s new boyfriend is partially deaf–make sure the captions are on.”

“Of course, Miss.  Welcome to the tower, Mister Barton.”

He didn’t have much chance to adjust to anything because Pepper started talking in the elevator.

“Tony doesn’t like being handed things–hates it in fact– so don’t be surprised if he won’t take something; just put it down where he can pick it up.  He actually doesn’t drink much anymore, but he likes people to think he does, so if he sends you to get something get ginger ale or something unless he’s specific.  He’s a fan of–”

It was a good thing he was used to mission briefings.

Tony came in a bit later, looked him over and grinned, “So… let’s take you shopping!”

 


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lunch  
> (a short chapter but hey)

Clint found himself following Tony back down and into the limousine again.

“You want to eat first?”

“Uh… sure?”

“Just so you know, the paparazzi should take all of point three seconds to  find out I’m out in public with someone they don’t know, and start  snapping photos and speculating, so as soon as the limo doors open? We’re on.”

Right… uh… we haven’t discussed… I mean Miss Potts told me a bit, but… shouldn’t we get clothes first? I mean I’m just in jeans–”

“And they make your ass look fabulous, and you’re supposed to be someone I just picked up.” Tony grinned and slid over closer in the limo, “I hope you’re okay with public displays of affection, babe.” 

“I HAVE done undercover work before, yes.”  Clint replied, “Are you going to be able to handle a fake gay boyfriend? I mean… you’re straight.”

“I am? Who the hell told you that?”

Clint blinked at him a lot–Tony smirked, “Yup, adorable lost look.”

“What?  Wait… you aren’t? but… uh…” he waved his hands, “Calendar…?”

“I used to be exclusively girls because that’s pretty much what was expected, you know?” Tony shrugged, “Then… well then I had an utterly DISASTROUS affair with a guy, but I found out that my interests had been artificially stifled:  I think the term is pan, or bi, or …” he shrugged. “You’re good looking; I wouldn’t kick you out of bed.”

Tony looked at the stunned look on Clint’s face. “Chill!” he held up a hand, “It’s all play acting, I saw you and Romanov… but we do have to make it look good for the cameras.”

 _Oh God not one more person who thought he and Natasha_ …“Right, um… I think you–”

“Oh, we’ll have the new hearing aid for you to test when we get back.”

“You … wait you make hearing aids?”

“Never did before, no, that’s why we’ll have to test it.”

Visions of his ears exploding or something caused Clint to twitch, “No, no, the one I have is fine.”

“It’s junk.”

“How do you know?!”

“Did I make it?”

“No, its S.H.I.E.L.D. issue.”

“Then its junk.  Also it’s probably bugged or something.”

 _This… this was not what I expected_. “I think my briefing left a lot out…”

“Oh? probably.” Tony shrugged, “Fury has a love hate relationship with me–he loves my tech and hates me– and Natasha didn’t want me on the Avengers, so I can imagine.”

“Natasha thought you were straight, too.” Clint pointed out, “so… um… I guess you weren’t exactly easy to get information on?”

Tony smiled again and Clint was beginning to think that all of Tony’s smiles were fake. “Bingo!  There are three people in New York who know me, the real me, and one of them is driving the car: Happy, say hi.”

“Hi there! Happy Hogan at your service.”

“Uh hi?”

“We’re going to get lunch at the Hard Rock Café; that should ensure that at least one lucky photographer gets a photo of us and then people will start asking…”

“How do you want me to act, though?” Clint tried not to whine, “We didn’t go OVER this!”

“You do you, babe, because that ‘oh my god what did I get into’ look is utterly fabulous! Anyway we’re here.” And Tony opened the door and reached back in for Clint.

Clint stepped out of the Limo and stared at more lights and neon in one place than he’d seen outside of Vegas, “Um…”  Tony put an arm around him and started walking him in.  He heard a click sound and jumped slightly–long years of training said click noises were bad.

Tony spun toward the sound, “Barry? Hey!  What are you doing, slumming?”

Tony went back to walking in, with Clint having little choice but to follow him– _dear God there were too many angles to shoot at them here._

“Tony…”a non-descript guy with a camera was looking at them and looking back and forth to Tony’s arm around Clint. “So who…?”

“Clint Baron!  He’s a drummer!” Tony said happily.

“Uh… hi?” Clint had just time to say before they were swept inside–Tony’s hand had definitely slid down to his ass.

They were swept to a brightly lit table in full view of everyone–which made sense, since they needed the publicity, but Tony was in nice clothes and Clint was just in jeans and a T shirt under a practical leather jacket…

“Relax.” Tony said, or at least… _probably? Damn_.

Clint leaned in close, “I’m going to have to turn off my hearing aid–too much background noise.”

“Can you lip read?”

“Spy requirement, “Clint joked, “yeah, but your mustache will make it harder.”

“My mustache makes all the boys harder.” Tony retorted.  He wasn’t even thinking about it but Clint sputtered and… “Oh my God you BLUSH?”

Clint closed his eyes and turned off the hearing aid under the guise of covering his face.

… The lip reading wasn’t that bad with the bright lights, and sometimes Tony handed him his pad to write out a note.  He was really good at just touching him under the table or on his hand to get his attention too.

By the time they left there were a LOT more photographers.  He just tried to watch Tony for cues because no way he was turning on his hearing aid.

~

Tony had to laugh at the gabble of questions: “Are you gay now?!” “A DRUMMER?”  “Did you break up with Miss Potts?”  and Clint had that adorable deer in headlights thing going– he smiled sort of reflexively at the cameras though, so it sold.

Tony held up a hand, “First of all I’m pansexual, I just happen to prefer women–but this isn’t my first boyfriend, no.  Yes, Clint is a drummer. My CEO and I are not seeing each other right now, but we’re still good friends. “ He raised his voice, “and yes she’s met him.  Anyway, we’re going shopping, Bye!”

And he got into the Limo with Clint, who still had that “I’m smiling, aren’t I supposed to smile? What the hell was that?” look on his face–truly it was adorable.

He saw Clint reach up and fiddle with his ear. “Can you hear me now? Geez I feel like a commercial for cell phones.”

“Yeah… wow… that was… I’m not used to that kind of publicity.”

“That? That was nothing–the Avengers publicity was a nightmare.”

“I saw,” Clint nodded, “So… we got the publicity we needed–”

Tony started laughing, “Oh you poor sweet summer child… that was just the START.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> shopping, music, and trouble

They drove to someplace–Clint had lost track of where, and that was bad– got out and were almost instantly whisked into a clothing store.  In what felt like minutes Clint was being measured, fussed at, and people were running back and forth asking Tony about his clothes.

Tony watched in fascination as Clint looked more and more lost: he’d seen him be the efficient soldier, and the exhausted victim, but this was adorable beyond belief.

Also?  His ass was even nicer than Tony had thought.  The biceps though were going to be a problem in a dress shirt.

“Like, no,” Tony shook his head, “Get the tailor in here­; with his shoulders and arms? He needs at least semi-custom.  How fast can we get him a custom jacket too? Any of the ones you have will be a straightjacket!”

One of the minions said something about weeks, and the manager plastered on her ‘shut up you’ look and stepped up, “Mister Stark? While the jacket would have to have some short cuts taken we could have your friend–”

“Boyfriend.” Tony amended.

“Your boyfriend,” she amended with a smile and without missing a beat, “a jacket within a couple of days.  He’ll need to come back tomorrow for a fitting.”

“Excellent!” Tony smiled happily.

Clint’s was looking at the lack of price tags on anything, feeling the softness of this leather jacket, and the way the ‘off the rack’ pants were being tailored as they went and swallowed, “Tony… uh… this is a lot of money to spend…”

Tony walked up and wrapped his arms around Clint’s waist. “No, it’s really not- besides, how would it look if I was taking you out and all you had were those absolutely yummy jeans?”

Clint knew the public profile on the man–hell, and the SHIELD profile too– but… Tony had been really nice, and he was even nice about his hearing and…

“Tony, I’m… look, I know you have to look good this weekend, but… this is a lot of clothes and a lot of–”

Tony just laughed, “No Babe, it REALLY isn’t.” he patted his hand and stepped back, “What’s the worst that happens? We break up and you have a lot of nice clothes?”

_Sigh._

…

After the clothing store they swung by a music store and Tony cheerfully said, “No, seriously, I don’t mind: how much can a new drum set cost anyway?” loudly enough to get the attention of a few people, and then suddenly  there were a lot of  shrieks of “Oh My God it’s IRON MAN!” and Clint found himself in the odd position of being by passed by a ton of healthy and presumably mentally stable-ish people who flocked around Tony and were all trying to get his autograph… at least.

Several of the young women, and at least one young man, were trying to get more than that.

Clint found himself  torn between  his job–guard Tony Stark, his job–create his cover as a boy toy musician, and a rather  odd personal interest in punching that one  rather handsy bitch.

“Does she think she’s that cute?” Clint grumbled while the sales clerk showed him a really nice drum set.

“Probably,” the sales clerk looked amused, “want me to cut him out of the herd for you?”

“Could you? I’d appreciate it.”

The sales clerk walked over and got Tony’s attention, “Mister Stark? Your boyfriend wanted your opinion…”

Tony watched several of the girls look stricken, and the one guy look both crestfallen and hopeful, and made his excuses, “Sorry guys, gotta go… you know these drummers…” and then on the way over to Clint, “Thank you, my man, I owe you one.”

“Not a problem, your boyfriend was about ready to shank one of them with a drumstick.”

“Was he?” Tony grinned and walked up to Clint, sliding his arm around him and kissing him on the back of the neck, “I did try to warn you, Babe, it’s always like this.”

Clint relaxed into the arm and… _oh no, no no no, this was a job, and Tony wasn’t even interested in me…._ “I know it’s stupid, Tony, I just have this jealous streak…” _no no no no no…. oh hell, no… pull it together Barton! You are not developing a crush on Tony Stark! You just AREN’T!_

“You’re insecure,” Tony sighed– _Damn he was a good actor_ – “it’s alright… now tell me about this drum set…”

And God DAMN if Clint didn’t slip behind the drum set and do a passable  run through!

“I can’t tell if the acoustics are playing tricks on me, or the sound is … off.” Clint admitted.

The sales clerk looked a bit startled, “Oh… um…well… you uh… may need to move up a few steps on the drums…”

“Showing my Babe here second rate drums?” Tony looked at the clerk and wagged a finger.

“These are very good drums,” the clerk allowed, “for an ENTRY level performer… we don’t keep the top level sets out where random customers can hit them.”

Clint smiled, “I’ve played on way worse… but if Tony is going to buy me a set…”

Tony waved at the clerk, “Lead on… where’s the good stuff?”

He took them both to something like a mock stage, and they actually lowered a drum set down from a display up above  it.

“That looks cool… we should have done THAT for the band…” Clint grinned.

Tony laughed, “All that’s missing is the smoke and lights!”

“That’s the best set we have in stock–there are better available but those are completely put together by the customers and shipped…”

Tony waved at the drums, “So let’s hear the difference...”

Clint looked at the crowd now staring at him, and spotted more than a few reporters who had followed them in by now, and tried to act like being on stage was normal. He sat down behind the drum set and adjusted heights–buying himself a bit of time by tapping drums and tuning and adjusting pedals… He started by running through a few simple rhythms, hitting a few combos…

Tony fought hard to keep his mouth from falling open:  Clint could actually PLAY… he watched him slowly forget the crowd and run the set through, like an experienced driver checking out a new car, and how it responded…

And then he shot Tony a cocky grin and started in on the drums for ‘Hotel California’…

Tony could see Clint’s lips moving to the lyrics, and found himself singing along…

Clint watched Tony singing along and grinned and led right from ‘Hotel California’ into ‘Shoot to Thrill’ and felt a warm flush at the answering grin on Tony’s face…

…

When they got back to the tower Tony insisted they swing by the lab first: the lab that every SHIELD agent knew was so high on the interest list it wasn’t funny.

“Ok, take out that piece of junk and try this.” Tony was holding out what honestly looked like an earplug.

Clint took the hearing aid off, “It’s a bit beyond that, I’m afraid.”

Tony just raised an eyebrow and gestured so Clint put it in… suddenly there was noise, and he almost flinched.

“Jarvis?” Tony said and it was a SHOUT for how loud and clear it was.  He saw the reaction and lowered his voice, “Reduce gain, Jarvis.”

Clint went through the testing in a daze.

~

Tony had to face some very unpleasant facts: not only was Clint gorgeous­– and the combination of competence and helplessness was like catnip–­ but he was fun, and… he seemed genuinely nice?  This was a problem.  The near tears when he gave him the new hearing aid? Big problem.

By the time he finished explaining how it linked to his new smart watch and he could set it to filter down background noise in favor of  human speech range… well Clint was desperately trying to keep it and babbling, “you don’t have to.” And…

_Yeah this was bad._

_This was very, very, bad._

_~_

Tony took Clint back up to the penthouse and realized he hadn’t made any kind of arrangements for where Clint was staying, and Clint apparently realized the same thing judging from the awkward silence…

“Right, well… uh… guess I forgot to work one thing out…” Tony tried not to fidget.

“It would look really weird if people saw me leave too soon, after we came back to your place…”

“We’re GOING to have to share a hotel suite when I go to the convention…” Tony sighed, “I just… hadn’t worked out the details.”

“I can sleep on the sofa…?”

“THAT sofa? No way… the old sofa was comfortable, this one will mess up your back–slept on it enough, I should know.”

“Errr…”

“Look, we’re both adults, and… this is just a temporary arrangement… and we’re going to have to keep up the act at the hotel, so…” Tony ruthlessly shoved his attraction away– _He’s involved with Natasha._

“Right,” Clint nodded, “No different than any other field assignment, right? The bed’s comfortable and it’s big enough for both of us.” _And I am going to be taking god-damn COLD showers._

“Right.” Tony nodded.

_This was going to be hell…_

 


End file.
